Cemetery Survey Introduction

In the early 1980s members of the Central Florida Genealogical Society undertook a project to survey and record every tombstone and marker in every cemetery in the Orange County Florida area. At that time, there were approximately 60 cemeteries surveyed, from the tiny Vineland Cemetery with its two tombstones to the much larger Greenwood and Glen Haven Cemeteries. Every name was recorded along with dates and basic information from tombstones and markers. This survey was arraigned by cemetery and surname which made it difficult to find anyone if the cemetery where a person was buried was unknown.

This project was completed in 1983. One of the project leaders, Kate Stirk, put all the records together and had the entire listing typed and indexed. It came to 446 pages not including an introduction or index. Due to its size, the CFGS board of directors of determined that they could not afford to publish it as a book so only a few copies were made. One was sent to the Orlando Family History Library but the others remained in storage until now.

Tombstone Database

Currently, the tombstone and marker inscriptions from the original survey from 1983 are being retyped into a spreadsheet. Some standardize conventions were followed to portray the original information as accurately as possible. In a few cases no surnames were included in the original survey. Where later information provided a surname it was added and are shown in brackets [   ]. Not all tombstones were readable and/or the dates were incomplete or missing. As groups of cemetery are completed, they are uploaded to the Tombstone Database. When completed it is estimated there will be over 60,000 names in the database.

Please not that due to the large size of this database, when you click on the link (above in the header) there will a delay of up to a minute or more while the database is being loaded. The actual time will depend on your computer and speed of your connection. If you are having trouble accessing the Tombstone database it may be that we are actively updating it. If you encounter a problem please check back later. If you have an ongoing problem accessing this data please contact the Webmaster.

Cemetery List

The cemeteries included in this study is available on the Cemetery List page. There you will find a link to details for each cemetery that include at a minimum the original 1983 information. However, as with the Tombstone Database, this information is currently being updated to include alternate names a cemetery is known by, ownership, current directions, coordinates, street address, notes, photos and other information. Where practical, a Google Map and a Find-A-Grave link will be provided.